Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s early works were influenced by her late husband, George ‘Tjampu’ Tjapaltjarri (c 1945–2005), who also worked in a minimalist, dichromatic, optical style. Over time she developed a comfortable rhythm in her paintings, from her early works which typically depicted women’s stories to her later exploration of intricate, detailed lines, and a subtle use of tonal variation and alternately coloured dots to create an undulating effect on the canvas. These later works appear to shimmer, much like the sandhills of the desert in the heat of the day, and are occasionally exhibited on the floor, giving a topographical view of country. Untitled is mesmerising—the optical force of the fine, repetitive zigzag lines is expertly executed on canvas. As Nakamarra describes:

The lines in the painting represent the surrounding tali (sand hills) in the area around Wirrulnga. A group of ancestral women once gathered at this site to perform the dance and sing the songs associated with the area. Wirrulnga is known as a traditional birthing site for the women of the area, and while the women were at Wirrulnga a woman of the Napaltjarri kinship [group] gave birth to a son who was a Tjupurrula. While at Wirrulnga the women also gathered the edible berries known as kampurarrpa or desert raisin ... These berries can be eaten straight from the bush but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked in the coals to form a type of damper.[1]